The Rand of the Lising San

I'd like to preface the following post by admitting that I've only been living here for just over a month. So, in other words, I may or may not be full of shit.


That being said, I feel I should expose some of the less 'awesome' aspects of Japan. This week I'll cover racism/discrimination.


Racism/Discrimination:


Well, there's racism and discrimination pretty much everywhere you go, however, in Japan it can be very clear and in-your-face. Some people will outright dismiss you just for not being the right shade of yellow (see: Chinese and Koreans), and moreso for being another hue entirely (see: Anything else). You can try to be as Japanese as you want, marry a Japanese person, have half-Japanese little bastards running around, speak better Japanese than the locals and even be a citizen...that'll all sum up to about: fuckall.


You see, Japanese people are very much about the appearances of things. You can be the richest, intelligent, funniest mofo under the sun and by GOD will the Japanese not give a shit about that if you dress like anything less than spectacular.


...


Ok, shitty example. Here's another one: At work, I have certain 'planning' periods where I'm supposed to do planning for classes, except that I only have one school and most of my classes are the same, so I spend a good deal of time looking like I'm busy when really all I'm doing is staring at a piece of paper in front of me and pretending to write. I wish I were kidding about this, I really do. To add further insult to this ordeal of sitting around while you lose all will to live, comes the added 'stress' that if you're done with all your work and you're still not looking busy, you are deemed lazy and unproductive. Now that last bit applies to EVERYONE in the room, but because you're a different color, you're under even more scrutiny (especially if your contrast if low - if you catch my drift). People might walk near you and try to look at what you're doing so they can tell others about how "you were doodling dicks on your desk" or something like that [I'd like to note I haven't been doodling dicks on my desk - Ed]. 


Another little 'issue' is when you have racist teachers in the same room, or when you pass them on the hall. They are NOT coy about it, and will either ignore you/your greeting entirely or look at you like you just sodomized their dog and ate their kid. Or something like that. Either way, to them, you're somewhere between dog shit and a child molester, and all because you're not the right kind of hue or contrast.


"Contrast me up, Scotty."


-Cee


[The Rand of the Lising San is a series focusing on the shittier sides of Japan. This is merely to inform and/or vent, not necessarily reflecting overall opinion of Japan or Japanese people. There's a reason why Cee lives there.]